ArticleScientific reports2021
The consequences of COVID-19 on social interactions: an online study on face covering.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 188 citations in OpenAlex.
- Face Processing in Early Development: A Systematic Review of Behavioral Studies and Considerations in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Impact of mask-wearing on emotion recognition accuracy and fixation duration in young children.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Multi-dimensional factors of behavioral intention of COVID-19 booster vaccination among people having contracted COVID-19-a 7-city study conducted during the last national major outbreak in China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Limited Effect of Masking During COVID-19 Pandemic on ADOS-2 Algorithm Scores in Toddlers With and Without Autism.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Interpersonal sensitivity and its associated factors among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a network analysis.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Effects of Pandemic Response Measures on Crime Counts in English and Welsh Local Authorities.Applied spatial analysis and policy · 2025Article
- Topic modelling and sentiment analysis during COVID-19 revealed emotions changes for public health.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- How different face mask types affect interpersonal distance perception and threat feeling in social interaction.Cognitive processing · 2024Article
- Adapting Minds: Exploring Cognition to Threatened Stimuli in the Post-COVID-19 Landscape Comparing Old and New Concerns about Pandemic.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- The impact of distance education on the socialization of college students in the Covid-19 era: problems in communication and impact on mental health.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Introducing IOSScientific reports · 2024Article
- Accuracy and Speed of Emotion Recognition With Face Masks.Europe's journal of psychology · 2024Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and changes in social behavior: Protective face masks reduce deliberate social distancing preferences while leaving automatic avoidance behavior unaffected.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- Perceived interpersonal distance changes in young Taiwanese pre and post SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- The effects of face masks on emotional appraisal ability of students with autism spectrum disorder.International journal of developmental disabilities · 2024Article
- On the brain struggles to recognize basic facial emotions with face masks: an fMRI study.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Lesson Learned During a Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study of Pregnant Women's Experience in Resource-Limited Setting.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the nature of our social interactions. In order to understand how protective equipment and distancing measures influence the ability to comprehend others' emotions and, thus, to effectively interact with others, we carried out an online study across the Italian population during the first pandemic peak. Participants were shown static facial expressions (Angry, Happy and Neutral) covered by a sanitary mask or by a scarf. They were asked to evaluate the expressed emotions as well as to assess the degree to which one would adopt physical and social distancing measures for each stimulus. Results demonstrate that, despite the covering of the lower-face, participants correctly recognized the facial expressions of emotions with a polarizing effect on emotional valence ratings found in females. Noticeably, while females' ratings for physical and social distancing were driven by the emotional content of the stimuli, males were influenced by the "covered" condition. The results also show the impact of the pandemic on anxiety and fear experienced by participants. Taken together, our results offer novel insights on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social interactions, providing a deeper understanding of the way people react to different kinds of protective face covering.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.